The measurement of bladder pressure is a basic test in urodynamic examinations, and is a method of investigating bladder functionality regarding a bladder volume, capacity and contractility, detrusor contractility, and drug reactions while recording changes in pressure occurring during bladder filling and urination.
Bladder pressure is examined using bladder pressure measurement equipment. However, since bladder pressure is a pressure that appears during urination, it is the sum of abdominal pressure and detrusor pressure. Accordingly, abdominal pressure should be subtracted from bladder pressure in order to calculate detrusor pressure actually indicative of bladder functionality. For this reason, conventional bladder pressure measurement equipment includes a bladder pressure measurement catheter configured to be inserted into the urethra in order to measure detrusor pressure, an abdominal pressure measurement balloon configured to be inserted into the anus or the vagina in the case of a female patient in order to measure abdominal pressure, and an electromyography unit configured to examine the organic motion of sphincters.
Therefore, to measure detrusor pressure, a patient's genitalia must be exposed, and in this state, the bladder pressure measurement catheter must be inserted through the urethra, and the abdominal pressure measurement balloon must be inserted through the vagina or anus. In addition, while physiological saline is artificially injected directly into the bladder of the subject at a position close to an urodynamic device, changes in intravesical pressure and the pattern of urination are examined while the subject delays urination for a specific time or urinates according to the examiner's instructions.
This conventional system for measuring bladder pressure has several disadvantages. First, it can cause significant embarrassment not only to a subject but also to an examiner. Specifically, the urethral, genital and anal sites are necessarily exposed during the preparation of examination, and the examiner must touch the exposed site or insert the device into the site, and the subject must urinate next to the examination device according to the examiner's instructions, and for these reasons, the subject is likely to feel great embarrassment. Additionally, the examiner who performs this procedure can feel psychological discomfort. In addition, due to the repeated insertion of the catheter into the urethra during examination, the subject can experience side effects, including urinary tract infection, haematuria, and painful urination.
Furthermore, since urine flows down along the outside of the catheter, the examination place is apt to be contaminated with urine. In addition, the measurement device has a problem in terms of accuracy. Specifically, since the catheter is inserted into the urethra, which is the outlet for urine, the catheter itself impedes urination to interfere with accurate examination. Also, since examination is performed while the bladder is artificially filled with physiological saline within a short time due to the temporal and spatial limitations of examination, natural physiological urination cannot be reproduced. In addition, since the subject urinates near the examiner according to the examiner's instructions, the resulting embarrassment can also impede actual urination. In various respects as described above, it is difficult to trust the accuracy of conventional examination.
In this regard, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2009-0082636 entitled “Method for Measuring Abdominal Pressure using Surface Electromyography” and Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2003-0090171 entitled “Portable Device for Monitoring Intravesical Pressure and Bladder Neck Pressure” disclose relevant contents. However, the technologies disclosed in such patent documents measure abdominal pressure electromyographically or separately measure only bladder pressure, and are thus problematic in that they cannot measure both abdominal pressure and bladder pressure.